group age range (how low can you go)??

Without more info on how the kid got into your game then we can't rally offer much more. I will give you some examples I have encountered.

I run a game for a 7 yo, a 15 yo, and 4 11 yo. The 7, 15, and one 11 yo are my sons. The other three 11 yo are friends of my middle son. This works great. The parents know us.

The DM I play with in my adult group said he ran a group for him son and the son's friends when they were young teens. Eventually th son and all the friends except one lost interest. The one join my DM's adult group at the time until he graduated and went away to college. That worked fine too.

Ultimately I believe that if you are continually having issues with a younger player in your game, then that's pretty telling. Mileage varies from group to group, so what works for one doesn't necessary work for another, especially as some teenagers are at vastly different levels of maturity at the same age. If you are having a problem with it, you're well within your rights to do something about it.

I've played with the same group for 13 years now. Back then I was a 21 year old who played fast and hard, but 21 is different than 14. Fast forward a few years and one of the players invites his twin grandsons to play with us, they're both 14. We had two stipulations: 1) Learn the rules, as in you can't keep asking us the same questions over and over, and 2) Pay attention. We didn't want to have to play for them when their turn came up. After a few sessions it was painfully obvious that they were failing at both of these guidelines we laid out for them and they weren't invited back.

But if you're still waffling, talk to the other group members, see if they too have a problem with it.

In the last month I've had players from about 12 to early 50's. Open table, in public venue.

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HawaiiSteveO said:

Our appx. group age is mid to late 30's (some older) -had a new player join us, turns out he's 14!

From first session seems like a nice young man and had fun, but situation bothers me.

Our games are really casual and fun, and we don't have any particular adult storylines and so on. Still, he's 14!

I can't help but think he'd be a better fit playing with friends or at a local game store or something. I usually wouldn't exclude anyone as long as they obeyed the 'social contract'. Still, it just doesn't seem right to me.

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My son often plays, he's 10 now which is still a bit young to play with the less child friendly sort of gamer nerd, but I think by 14 it'd definitely be fine for any normal game (not KULT, FATAL or whatever).

Some people don't like playing with children, but there's definitely nothing wrong with it per se. Some people don't like playing with old folks. I expect plenty of teen groups wouldn't allow a thirty-something in either!

At 44 I'm probably most comfy with gamers about 15 years either side of me, but there's no hard & fast rule. I have online gamer friends in their 60s, and offline players in their low 20s, as well as my boy, and sometimes the similar age son of another player.

HawaiiSteveO said:

I don't want to exclude anyone, although having a 14 year old boy come over to my house and spend hours in the basement with other people I don't really know that well makes me uneasy.

Would it make a difference if it was a 14 year old girl? That's just creepy.

As I said, if I hosted at a public location like library, game store etc. it wouldn't be as big a deal.

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I think it's definitely ok/good idea to check with the parents & make sure they know where he is. A 14 year old isn't an independent adult; I think even with a 16-17 year old I might want to
know the parents if their child is playing at my house, and definitely if younger. If my son were 14 and playing in a D&D game with adults not including me at the home of one of them, I'd definitely want to know about it and take a look at them.

Edit: I'm not seeing a boy/girl difference, but maybe that's a cultural thing. I had Muslim neighbours who had a girl child that was friends with my boy, but because she was female she
wasn't allowed to come into my house by her parents - they had to play out front, or he go in their house. Some cultures seem to think that girls are in danger from strangers but boys aren't, others don't discriminate.

My old group I dmed for 6+ was the youngest. My youngest co dm was 4. He rolled the dice against mom and dad until his bed time. it was also a counting exercise for him.